Sky Blue Sport News

Friday, November 26, 2010

Gibbo Pain!

What a body blow, we've just heard that United striker Richard Gibson, who didn't scream, or try to get his assailant sent off (Andy Devlin and Tommy Wright, please take note), will be missing with a broken bone in his foot, for at least 6 weeks. Six weeks that will most definitely define our season and we are left with only one fully fit striker, Gary McCutcheon, as Andy Smith struggles with a hamstring injury which could flare up at any time. United in fact will play 8 games inside the next 6 weeks, surely too hectic a schedule for part-time clubs like ourselves. These are the times when the clubs with money behind them can really amass an unassailable lead, surely that can't be fair. But that's the hand we've been dealt and tomorrow's opponents Crusaders will no doubt pose a few fresh problems for us.

Manager Walker has promised to deliver something of a surprise with his selection for tomorrow's game and what that could be is anybody's guess. Does he have an ace up his sleeve, a player who can come on and change things drastically enough for the Sky Blues to take the points? We admit we are completely in the dark over this development, Mo and Berry are reportedly both struggling with injuries, while Rory is still a few weeks away from a return to full fitness. Maybe Roy has convinced the Yeti to don a United jersey, it's definitely cold enough for him, given the snow-showers which have been prevalent over the last two days. Rumours about a former United striker making a cameo appearance have been denied by the club, so we'll just have to wait and see.

The United defence, much maligned after the Solitude debacle (and rightly so)and which regained a bit of dignity last week at the Marshes, will need to be on it's toes when the 'hatchet men' come to town. Games between the two sides have been pretty close in the last couple of seasons, with just one goal separating them in their last two meetings, with the visitors winning both, something that United need to address tomorrow. Then as luck would have it, we'll meet again at the same venue in the C.I.S. cup next Saturday, December 4, don't try to tell us that there aren't too many fixtures in this wee league of ours. Hopefully our new Irish F.A. President, a man native to the Ballymena area, Jim Shaw, will look at things a bit more realistically and not before time. It's yet another corporate lunch tomorrow, so a good crowd is to be expected, let's hope we have something to celebrate come 5 o'clock. Let's get stuck into the hatchet men, come on Sky Blues, let's shag those toothless tigers!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Dire Straits!

With only 3 points gained in their last 4 games, United suddenly find themselves in 'dire straits'. Tomorrow nights game at Newry, which is never an easy venue for United teams, has taken on gargantuan proportions as the teams immediately below us in the league are literally breathing down our neck. This would be bad enough if we had lost a hard fought game last time out, but as we were well and truly trounced, it's the last thing we want to contemplate. But contemplate it we must and it really is time for the experienced men in our team to stand up and be counted. The managers 'logic' (Gaffe),in withdrawing Gazza at halftime last week, backfired almost immediately when Cliftonville drove their midfield 'articulated' lorry through a wide open gap, will surely not be repeated once more.

Yes admittedly we were three nil down and action needed to be taken, but why would you take off your best player, when your defence was having a nightmare, it beggars belief. Surely Albert Watson, who appeared to be 'punch drunk' should've been withdrawn, instead of being moved to rightback where he continued to struggle. Sparky wasn't at his best, while Denver struggled and in fact only leftback Colligan showed us his best side. Ryan Berry looked good when he came on and in fact got a good shot on target, more than can be said for our inept strikers. Gary McCutcheon expressed his surprise at Kevin Kelbie's goal scoring feats when he joined United, reckoning he'd net at least twenty in a season. At this stage last season Kelbie had made 10 starts and 3 appearances as subs and scored 7 goals, Gary has scored 7 goals also, but made 20 appearances, not a great ratio in our book.

We're not saying Gary should be dropped, as let's face it we have nobody else, but maybe it's something we should be looking into come the January transfer window. Hanly, who missed last weeks game due to suspension, will surely earn a recall in midfield, while keeper Ryan Brown, a Walker close season signing will probably hold onto his place, but only just. Who partners Hanly in central midfield will be the crucial decision, we at 'Sport would plump for Gazza, although he may be needed to shore up our leaky defence, in which case it's a toss-up between Taggart and Berry, although Roy may have other ideas. Gibbo, who struggled on the artificial surface at Cliftonville last week (but who didn't), will probably earn a recall, he is after all our only 'target man'.

United fans were saying last week, 'when did we last concede 5 goals'? They were racking their brains, but it's not too distant, in fact it was only 3 months ago when they lost 5-0 away to Limavady United in a pre-season friendly. Before some 'smart Alec', states that that wasn't a full United team, it was after all the nucleus of our team and obviously we learned nothing from that defeat. It's an old old saying, we learn from our mistakes, but obviously this doesn't apply to Ballymena United football club, as they go on repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Tomorrow night we need to bounce back, if we don't we'll be back on the slippery slope and once there it's bloody hard to get going again. So come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Marshmen!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Plastic Farce!

United travel to North Belfast tomorrow for their first game on Cliftonville's new 'plastic pitch'. When Crusaders announced that they were going to be playing on a plastic pitch in future, we thought, yeah! yeah! and Santa Claus really does come down the chimney. But lo and behold they were not joking and now Cliftonville, whose pitch it must be said used to resemble a cabbage patch, have installed an artificial surface as well. They are not conductive to good football it must be said and unless they're laid properly, they are more of a hindrance than an asset. But it looks like they're here to stay and if rumours are to be believed there could be at least 2 more Premier clubs signing up to the plastic revolution.

As for tomorrow's line-up we just don't have a clue, Nathan Hanly will definitely be missing as he serves an automatic one game ban following his harsh sending off on Tuesday past. The rest of the team, barring injuries of course, almost picks itself. Gibbo and Cutch up front, Mikey and Murray on the wings, Gazza in central midfield, with Taggart or somebody else as his sparring partner. The back four is a matter of picking any four from five, from Albert, Sparky, Denver, Lee and Archie, while we would expect Ryan Brown to retain the keepers jersey. Of course Roy may astound us and go for a 4,3,3 system, bringing in Andy Smith, instead of Gavin Taggart, but we feel it's imperative that our hosts aren't given too much time on the ball and for this reason believe that a 4,4,2 system will prevail.

Cliftonville have struggled over the last few games, as we have done ourselves and the 'winner' tomorrow, will definitely take it all. If United win they will move above their hosts and if Cliftonville win they'll attain a bit of a gap between themselves and the dreaded bottom six. After tomorrow's game we will be past the halfway stage in the league, but we must disagree, with the claim made by Omar last night, that doubling our points tally will see us safely into the top six, when the split arrives after 33 games. As some one once said 'there are lies, damned lies and statistics' and acquiring 48 points may be enough in some seasons, but it can't be put down as a 'marker' for every season, we will just have to suck it and see. With that in mind let's get behind the wee Sky Blues tomorrow, so come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Cavehillers!

Monday, November 08, 2010

White Light!

Seemingly when we die (well according to people who have had out of body experiences), we will see a white light and we should walk towards that light. What is beyond that light is anybody's guess, no-one's ever gone beyond it and came back to tell the tale, at least we don't think so anyway. Tomorrow night United go to play the Whites under lights (well maybe not all the lights as they're infamous for not putting them all on), but we definitely don't want to be drawn to their lights. Nor do we want another draw as tomorrow night's game is almost a six pointer, we trail the host by 2 points and a win would mean we'd leap frog them, while a defeat would push us towards the bottom six and that is unthinkable. Manager Walker has intimated, once again, that he may tinker with his selection.

We at 'Sport cautioned him last week not to 'tinker' too much with his selection, in the end he only made one change, with Gavin Taggart replacing Sparky. For whatever reason this had a major effect on the team, who having got off to a dream start with Cutch giving them the lead after only 5 mins, just seemed to lose their way and were decidedly lucky to get a point in a game where they should've been comprehensively beaten. Maybe it was an anti-climax after holding the league champions, Linfield, the previous week, but whatever it was, it must be driven from our midst. Lee Colligan, out of favour of late probably did enough to earn a recall in the short time he was on the field on Saturday at the expense of Archie and along with Sparky, if fit, would surely merit a start tomorrow night. Ryan Berry didn't do a lot when he came off the bench at halftime, but he did set up Cutch for the equaliser and you can't ask much more from a midfielder than that.

Murray was more like his old self on Saturday, but we need Hanly in centre midfield to feed the ball to him, which means deciding between Gazza and Taggart for the other central midfield role. Of course Roy might want to go with a 5 man midfield, but we doubt he'd want to break up the blossoming partnership between Cutch and Gibbo up front. Goalkeeper Ryan Brown, who made a major gaffe on Saturday that led to Glenavon's first goal, did redeem himself with some good stops when the visitors threatened to blow us away in the 2nd half. In fact if it hadn't been for him, we might never have been in a position to snatch the afore mentioned undeserved point. As that was his first match back after injury, we believe the manager will give him the nod once more, but name Dwayne on the bench just in case or to keep him on his toes at least.

Denver and Albert, not at their best on Saturday, are still cementing their defensive partnership and Albert as we now know can come up with the goods when the chips are down, if fit we expect they will both be retained. If Sparky returns at rightback and Berry is selected wide right, will that mean no place for Mikey Smith, one of the few players to try his 'eye strings out last week. This would be a hard decision for Walker to make, but that's what he is paid for after all, but we don't envy him the job. We will no doubt come up against one or two former players tomorrow night, Paul Muir and David Cushley are two that spring to mind, also ex-manager Tommy Wright (who of course ran out on us when the going got tough) and this will add a bit of extra spice to the game. It's going to be tough tomorrow night, with old campaigners like Muir and Glenn Ferguson in opposition, but when the gong gets tough, the 'really tough' get going. So come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Lambeggars!

Friday, November 05, 2010

Looking Up!

After tonight's results in the Carling premiership, an away win, 2-1 for the I.F.A. (Linfield) and a draw between Newry and Distillery 1-1, United have a chance to move into 5th place with a win or maybe even 4th place depending on the result between the 'scum' and Chickenville when Glenavon come to the Showgrounds tomorrow. United manager Roy Walker has intimated that he may change things a wee bit for tomorrow's game or in his words, 'tweak things a wee bit'. We at 'Sport would counsel Roy to proceed with caution, always remembering the old adage of not changing for the sake of changing. The team that started against Linfield last week is our best starting eleven of the players fit and well at present and that team should be good enough to see off Glenavon tomorrow.

Admittedly there was a wee concern about the apparent ease which Peter Thompson shrugged off the challenges of Denver last week. But Denver is still finding his feet and Thompson (whether we like it or not), is an International and probably the top striker in our league at present, now that Hamilton has gone into the doldrums. Denver just needs to be a little more assertive and our next two games where he'll come up against first the experienced Tony Grant and then the 'I've seen and done it all' Glenn Fergusson, will be the perfect games for him to perfect his technique. The game beyond that, away to Cliftonville could match him against yet another top striker, Chris Scannell, so you see it's not going to get any easier, but it's all a learning curve and will stand him in good stead.

There's always Gazza for back-up if things do get tight, he slotted in last Saturday, just as if he'd been playing there all season, instead of only starting a handful of games this term. If Eamon Murray isn't 100% fit and he hasn't been for a few weeks, then surely he'd best not start against his former club tomorrow. We realise we'd miss his silken skills, but we did manage two goals last week against Linfield, when he didn't come out for the 2nd half. We also missed two 'sitters'and we're left wondering when Cutch is going to start delivering his promise of goals when he signed. Gibbo, a low key signing, has been a revelation and looks set to carve his name in United history along with the best of them. It was nice to see 'Sparky' back among the goals last week too, although we doubt he knew much about his 2nd effort.

With Gavin Taggart and Andy Smith, both fit again, will manager Walker give them starting slots tomorrow? Surely even Roy would be reluctant to bite into his prime eleven in such a fashion. But of course it may be a matter of tactics, or 'horses for courses' as seems to be the in-phrase at present, after studying recent reports on Glenavon's exploits. The visitors have shipped a lot of goals this term and we have missed a lot of sitters and these wil be the deciding factors in tomorrow's game we think. Manager Walker also hinted that he might 'rest' Dwayne Nelson, with Ryan Brown now recovered from injury, that also might be a bold move? Tomorrow's game could go a long way to defining our season and it'd be nice going to New Grovesnor on Tuesday night a place above the Whites and in order to do that a win tomorrow is a must. So come on Sky Blues, let's shag those Mourneviewers!